Thursday 7 March 2013

Instincts On Target?

It has been many years since I last competed in a motorcycle race, at one time motorcycle racing was my life, even though my abilities were no more than a sportsman level.

Reading the previously posted article by Jenks with Ayrton Senna, Article By Jenks, I began to recognize little similarities to my club level racing.

Have you noticed how, as you approach a 30 MPH speed limit, you have the ability to decelerate automatically and pass the 30 signs at pretty much that speed. This is on a sort of automated "motor" interpretation of your sensory information.
 Apply a little more attention and you find that now you can hit the 30 limit spot on, even without any brake application, just judgement and release of the throttle however many yards before.

Picking up a stone and throwing it at a notional target generally gets pretty close to where you wished on the first attempt, before processing the information to make fine adjustments for the next time,

The field archer fixes his eye on the target and without any aiming, only instinct, pulls the string of the longbow through and releases in one seemingly casual unplanned move.

For me, the start of a race seemed to have something in common with these examples of natural judgement....As I set my head down, committed to the start, I think that I knew the outcome, not just the route or the bumps or the wet patch, but somehow I knew what was going to occur to my left and to my right, all the way down the start straight and around the first corner. Like a sixth sense these events unfolded as expected....  but only on the races where I made a good start and as I committed to concentration I knew when this would happen!

Just like the successful throw of the "target striking" stone and the piercing of an arrow through an obscured target and....... the hitting of 30mph exactly as the signpost passes through peripheral vision.

Now if I had the ability to "see" this race unfold as "expected" for the third, fourth and hundredth corner, is that what a natural champion is capable of?

Perhaps a less obvious process of evolution?

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